The following report by our D.C. correspondent Frontinus concerns the use of foreign money by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to buy American public opinion and change government policy. There’s no secret about what the OIC is doing — they planned it at their annual conference last December, and posted a policy paper (PDF) with the details. It’s a blatant, in-your-face operation.

Frontinus’ report is designed as a game plan for grassroots organizations and think tanks to use to expose and counter the subversion of American journalists and our public officials

The OIC’s Long March Through American Institutions

The OIC’s Long March Through Western Institutions

by Frontinus

The Tactic:

In late December 2016, the OIC announced plans to pay American and European journalists and influential political leaders in order to change government policies based on OIC instructions and coordination.

This isn’t against the law in the United States, but anyone taking the OIC funds — a journalist or an influential person — should register as a foreign agent under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). These three criteria are required:

— for an organization or individual to have to register as a foreign agent under FARA. And, given the OIC’s statements in the linked document (also excerpted below), they are indeed in place.

We just don’t know who in the U.S. is taking the money to do the OIC’s bidding. Which brings us to…

The Asks:

Background:

On December 21, 2016 in Jeddah Saudi Arabia, the OIC held the 11th Session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers, titled “Session of the New Media to Counter Terrorism and Islamophobia”. The goal of the meeting was to develop the “OIC Media Strategy in Countering Islamophobia and its Implementation Mechanisms.” The document is here. It’s only ten pages long, and various sections may be useful for organizations dedicated to opposing Islamization.

As always with OIC documents, the English can be a bit odd — presumably badly translated from the Arabic.

Somewhat arbitrarily, I quote the following bits, starting with the Long Term Goals (emphasis added):

III. Long Term Goals:

1.		To call media professionals to develop, articulate and implement voluntary codes of conduct to counter Islamophobia. The OIC and its Member States should be vocal in calling media professionals to use the power they have with responsibly through accurate reporting.
2.		To assess successful media campaigns with a view to understanding the strong factors to be replicated and review the unsuccessful ones for avoiding the weak contents and procedures.
3.		To engage with western governments in creating awareness against the dangers of Islamophobia by addressing the responsibility of media on the issue.

The Actions are also worth noting — Page 2:

3.

To enhance the presence of Muslims on the internet and benefit from the experiences of successful Islamic institutions in this regard, as the success of Islamophobes in the West is the failure of Muslims online. However, extra care should be considered while investing on this enhancement, as there is a need to be aware of unintended consequences of the increased presence of Muslims on the internet. In addition, there is a need to identify and support non-Muslim bloggers and researchers from outside the mainstream media positively disposed towards Islam and Muslims.

Page 7:

This campaign proposes that the OIC plays a leading role in fostering effective anti-Islamophobia initiatives across the western world and achieve through a range of interlinked actions designed to accomplish both short-term and long term-targets. These include seeding a proactive anti-Islamophobia grassroots media network in the United States and specific European countries, overseen by OIC – appointed regional public relations offices (PR); researching and identifying the key misconceptions about Islam and Muslims, and refuting these through a comprehensive online resource supported with social media; building alliances with scholarly, journalistic and media communities, and civil societies. In addition, the project would seek to develop an “Ambassadors’ Programme” or “OIC Friends Program” to recruit local public figures and celebrities to support the initiative; organize key engagements between western delegates and figures from the Muslim world; create a fund to support local anti-Islamophobia initiatives; media monitoring and high impact media positioning to place commentary and news stories in key western publications; arranging a high profile advertising campaign to leverage this work through mass market publicity, and developing broadcast quality documentaries to explore how Islamophobia has affected Muslim communities and western societies alike.

Pages 9-10:

5— Anti-Islamophobia Ambassadors or OIC Friends Network

• Identify and recruit leaders, opinion-formers and public figures in western politics, media and the art [sic] for the anti-Islamophobia “ambassadors” network.
• Apply “ambassadors” network to other aspects of internal OIC anti-Islamophobia work.
• Engage with specific projects, events, and other publicity generating activities elsewhere that are suitable for ambassadors.

6— Anti-Islamophobia Independent Projects Fund

• Determine scope and potential recipients for anti-Islamophobia fund.
• Create application materials, determine application process, and solicit projects.
• Determine methodology for assessing projects and selecting recipients.
• Disburse grants on the basis of assessments and determine criteria for delivery.
• Institute review / monitoring and evaluative mechanism of the process of media campaign and apply to recipients to ensure delivery of results within deadline.

7— Examples of Mass Media Campaigns and public relations

• A two-week television campaign and a two-week advertising campaign targeting public transport (bus and metro), famous newspapers and magazines for each country two times in one year.
• Produce and/or commission and television and transport media campaigns.
• Promote media campaigns through social media, ambassadors, and through secondary or internal networks.
• Reporters Exchange program (ten reporters and journalists per year).
• Arranging three talk shows per year in key TV channels in US and Europe about Islam, with the participation of selected members from the Muslim countries.
• Holding ten lectures per year in each country (universities, unions and suggested important centers) about Islamic role in building cultures and connect between religions.
• Visits to schools and universities and educational search by specialist team from our side.
• Arranging 100 Guest programs per year to be organized through the OIC with the Cooperation of its Member Countries to host a 100 – western activist from various fields in selected Muslim countries where they can interact with intellectuals, politicians, media figures, and religious scholars.

8— Documentary Productions

• Produce a broadcast quality one-hour documentary examining the growth of Islamophobia in the West and its impact on Muslims around the world and interfaith relations.
• Facilitate broadcast on mainstream networks such as Britain’s BBC and Channel 4 or America’s PBS.
• Promote documentary through social media, conventional advertising, ambassadors, and through secondary or internal networks.

One last point: The OIC’s institutions and policies are currently in flux, given the changes in Saudi Arabia’s governance, the Sunni-Shia wars, etc., all of which will affect the OIC’s policy positions and ability to function.

The OIC is just barely keeping it together, since so many members are at war with each other, and alliances keep shifting. The one thing they may be able to agree on is the need to use the Islamophobia campaign to open the West to hijra, to enable the onslaught of “refugees” from the Islamic countries’ civil wars and their regional wars against each other. The more that chaos descends in the Muslim world, the more they may project “Islamophobia” and make demands of the West.

And that’s why this is important.

But we are still not there, a tremendous amount of work is laying in front of us .

Jerusalem of Gold

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/israel-and-the-middle-east/report-riyadh-prepared-to-desert-palestinians-to-team-up-with-israel-against-tehran-32777

Saudi King Salman Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2 News

In an interview with the Telegraph, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former National Security Adviser Yaacov Nagel said that Saudi Arabia is so interested in countering Iran that it is willing to abandon the Palestinians in exchange for diplomatic relations with Jerusalem. Nagel explained that Riyadh wants to begin cooperating with Israel so desperately that it “doesn’t care” what kind of deal is reached between Israel and the Palestinians.

“They just have to say there is an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, they don’t care, they don’t give a damn about what will be in the agreement,” Nagel said. “They need to say there is an agreement in order to go for next steps.”

In November, the tensions between Riyadh and Tehran escalated after Houthi rebels fired a missile toward Riyadh from Yemen. The Saudi Press Agency reported that Riyadh conducted a comprehensive test on the missile and has proof that it was the work of the Iranians. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, however, claimed that it was in no way involved in the attack.

About two weeks later, the Arab League issued a statement denouncing Iran during an emergency summit in Cairo. According to the statement, Iran is destabilizing the entire Middle East and has been assisting Shia rebels in the civil war in Yemen for over two years.

The summit was organized by Saudi Arabia, which clarified it wished to act in a “serious and honest” manner against “Iranian aggression.” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir emphasized that no weakness should be demonstrated when dealing with Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.

The possibility of Saudi Arabia and Israel establishing diplomatic relations has made headlines in recent weeks, especially after IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot was interviewed by the Saudi newspaper Elaph. A few days after the rare interview, Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz confirmed that Israel and Saudi Arabia are in contact. “The connection with the moderate Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, helps us stop Iran,” he said during an interview with Army Radio.

“Even when we struggled to improve the nuclear agreement, with very partial success, there was some assistance from the moderate Arab states toward the US and Western powers,” Steinitz clarified. “Even today, when we are pressuring the superpowers not to agree to the establishment of an Iranian military base in Syria along our northern border, the Sunni Arab world is helping us with this matter.”

Some Syrian media reports say target is base being built by Iran, which was revealed in satellite pictures three weeks ago

 

Illustrative photo of an IAF F-16 (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/Flash90)

Israel fired missiles at a military base near the Syrian city of ​​al-Qiswa, southwest of Damascus, reportedly destroying an arms depot, according to numerous Arab media reports overnight Friday-Saturday.

Some media outlets affiliated with the Assad regime and Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah reported that Israeli warplanes targeted an ammunition bunker belonging to the Syrian Army. Other Assad-affiliated media outlets reported that the target was a military base that Iran is building in the area, and that loud explosions were heard after the attack.

The reports added that Israel fired five missiles. Syrian state media said its air defenses intercepted at least two Israeli missiles fired at a government “military position” in Damascus province, but that the attack still caused damage.

A Sky News Arabic report said that the missiles were fired from within Lebanese airspace.

There was no immediate official Israeli comment.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said missiles, presumably Israeli, targeted “positions of the Syrian regime and its allies” southwest of Damascus, destroying “an arms depot.” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said it was not immediately clear whether the warehouse was operated by the Syrian army, Iran or Hezbollah.

“At half past midnight [2230 GMT Friday], the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles at a military position in Damascus province,” Syria’s state SANA news agency reported. “The air defenses of the Syrian army were able to deal with the attack… destroying two of the missiles,” it said, adding that the attack nonetheless caused “material damage.”

The alleged Israeli attack came three weeks after the BBC reported that Iran was building a permanent military base in Syria just south of Damascus. The British broadcaster commissioned a series of satellite pictures that showed widespread construction at the site.

Satellite image of alleged Iranian base in Syria from October 2017 (Airbus, Digital Globe and McKenzie Intelligence Services/BBC)

Israel has long warned that Iran is trying to establish a permanent presence in Syria as part of its efforts to control a land corridor from Iran through to the Mediterranean Sea as it attempts to expand its influence across the Middle East. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said often that Israel will not allow Iran to establish a permanent presence in Syria, and was reported last week to have sent a warning to this effect via a third party to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In November, the IDF’s Patriot missile defense system shot down a drone above the Golan Heights, near the border with Syria.

Israeli security officials said the drone’s operators had deliberately attempted to fly the aircraft across the Israeli border from Syria, but it was shot down without crossing into Israel.

The IDF later concluded that the aircraft belonged to Assad’s regime.

A month before that, the IDF fired into Syria, hitting three rocket launchers, in response to earlier rocket fire, and warned that further fire would prompt a more intensive response.

Earlier that month, the Syrian army launched an interceptor missile at Israeli Air Force reconnaissance aircraft, which the IDF says were flying over Lebanon. In response, Israel sent out a second sortie of F-16 fighter jets to bomb an anti-aircraft battery that it believed launched the missile.

14 Kislev 5778 – December 1, 2017

White House Notifies US Embassies Around the World of Plan to Recognize Jerusalem as Capital of Israel

Photo Credit: Chanh Nguyen / Pixabay

The Trump administration has notified U.S. embassies around the world that it plans to formally recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, according to a report published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. The plan includes the future relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

According to the report, the plan has not been finalized, but envoys were being notified so that they can inform their host governments and prepare for possible protests.

Officials said a formal announcement may come as early as next week.

President Donald Trump faces a December 4 deadline to decide whether to sign another six-month waiver of the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 1995, passed by Congress which requires the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The waiver, included in the legislation, allows the president to delay the transfer for a six-month period on the condition there is a risk to “national security.”

“The president has always said it is a matter of when, not if, [the embassy will relocate to Jerusalem],” a White House spokesperson said. “The president is still considering options and we have nothing to announce.”

This report was filed from New York prior to the start of the holy Sabbath.

By: United with Israel Staff

Dec 1, 2017

UN votes 151-6 against Israel, an ‘occupying power’ with no rights to Jerusalem

Jerusalem Day celebrations in the Old City. (Nicky Kelvin/Flash90)

The UN passed six new resolutions against the Jewish state, including one denying Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem 151-6.

The United Nations General Assembly in New York passed six resolutions on Thursday affirming Palestinian rights and condemning Israeli violations of international law, Middle East Monitor reported.

According to one resolution (‘Jerusalem’), “the Assembly reiterated that any actions by Israel, the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem were illegal and therefore null and void.”

This resolution was adopted by 151 votes in favor to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, United States), with 9 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Honduras, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Togo), the Monitor said.

Israel’s delegate condemned the resolutions, claiming that the UN “continued to annually adopt biased resolutions and devote precious resources…to politicized bodies whose sole purpose was to attack and denounce Israel”. The US representative “echoed that opposition.”

BY: Reuters
December 1, 2017 4:52 pm

By Michelle Nichols

U.N. Report: Yemen Rebel Missiles Fired at Saudi Arabia Appear Iranian

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — Remnants of four ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this year appear to have been designed and manufactured by Riyadh’s regional rival Iran, a confidential report by United Nations sanctions monitors said, bolstering a push by the United States to punish the Tehran government.

The independent panel of U.N. monitors, in a Nov. 24 report to the Security Council seen by Reuters on Thursday, said it “as yet has no evidence as to the identity of the broker or supplier” of the missiles, which were likely shipped to the Houthis in violation of a targeted U.N. arms embargo imposed in April 2015.

Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Iran of supplying Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the United Nations to hold Tehran accountable for violating two U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The report said that monitors had visited two Saudi Arabian military bases to see remnants gathered by authorities from missile attacks on Saudi Arabia on May 19, July 22, July 26, and Nov. 4.

They also visited four “impact points” from the Nov. 4 attack where other remnants of the missiles were identified.

“Design characteristics and dimensions of the components inspected by the panel are consistent with those reported for the Iranian designed and manufactured Qiam-1 missile,” the monitors wrote.

The Qiam-1 has a range of almost 500 miles and can carry a 1,400-pound warhead, according to GlobalSecurity.org public policy organization.

Saudi-led forces, which back the Yemeni government, have fought the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen’s more than two-year-long civil war. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has described Iran’s supply of rockets to the Houthis as “direct military aggression” that could be an act of war.

SMUGGLING ROUTE

Another ballistic missile was shot down on Thursday near the southwestern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel reported.

The U.N. monitors said they gathered evidence that the missiles were transferred to Yemen in pieces and assembled there by missile engineers with the Houthis and allied forces loyal to Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“The panel has not yet seen any evidence of external missile specialists working in Yemen in support of the Houthi-Saleh engineers,” the monitors wrote.

They visited Saudi Arabia after the monitors called on the coalition to provide evidence backing Riyadh’s claim that Iran was supplying missiles to the Houthis, warning that a failure to do so would violate a U.N. resolution.

They said the missiles most likely were smuggled into Yemen along “the land routes from Oman or Ghaydah and Nishtun in al Mahrah governorate (in Yemen) after ship-to-shore transshipment to small dhows, a route that has already seen limited seizures of anti-tank guided weapons.”

The Saudi-led coalition used the Nov. 4 missile attack to justify a blockade of Yemen for several weeks, saying it was needed to stem the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran.

The United Nations had said the blockade could spark the largest famine the world has seen in decades. Some 7 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine, and nearly 900,000 have been infected with cholera.